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cale_afterearth

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Apr 10, 2012
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hey all, just had a fun day at the office!

got one of those Phishing calls from "microsoft tech support", going on about my pc having a virus.. ? lol

yes, i know its a load of crap, but i decided to take it for a laugh n see what they wanted...

firstly, they got me looking up the Event Viewer (eventvwr.exe) and claim that all that stuff is errors... ohh scarey... its a log! nothing more!

then they wanted me to download some crap from the internet... at which point i said no and hung up...

during this call though, i decided to google everything he was saying... came up with this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres

just incase! hang up on anyone claiming to be from Microsoft, we all know they'll never offer help!

or in my case, i'm gonna see what funny things i can get away with next time.
like saying, "sorry, i own a Mac..."

 

richard0a37

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Jun 14, 2012
1
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10,510
I, too, had a call from these people. I accepted they might get an alert of some sort, but I was curious to know how they linked this with my phone number. They said this is standard information that I would have supplied when registering my computer.

'Fair enough' I said, what's my problem? He then led me to eventvwr and the half a dozen errors which he said needed to be fixed and directed me to www.support.me

This website requires a 6-digit security code so I told him to send that to my email address.

'And what is your email address?' he asked.
'You mean you don't know my email address?' I enquired. 'My email address and telephone number always go hand in hand.
'Are you intelligent, literate?' he then asked in slightly angry tone.
'Goodbye'
 

verry mad

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Jul 18, 2012
1
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10,510
OMG
I just got the same call but got a bad feeling , I do not trust any one, and told the guy to just tell me who he is and give me a number to check to see he was who he said he was. after asking him for the number 6 times he gave it to me with an attatude. I hung up. never called it back for all I knew it was the guy sitting next to him lol. I called my internet provider they saidthey know nothing about this is was a scam and not to do any thing he said to do. it could cause lots of problems with my computer it is a scam.
this so called windows tec support tried to tell me it is being called internet dumes day for windows systems LOL. he said the co. name was 1 stop solitions 1-888-458-9001 is the number he tried to get me to call to varafy this .
OMG he just called back just now i told him I did some checking and this is a scam do not call this number agian and hung up boy what guts.
o and the caller ID shows them calling out of New York.
 

Bilb

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Jul 5, 2012
22
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My old man had a call from one of these. They took him through the event viewer and all the errors, he then wanted to know more so they asked him to go to some websites which also would idicate problems to yor PC if you're not that computer literate.

Anyway he kept them stringing on for around half an hour, they told him to go to there website and download there ''virus scanner'', which was obviosly the virus. At this point he then said to the disbelief of the scammer, 'don't you need a computer to do that?'. Suprisingly he put the phone down after he had already wasted half an hour of his time.

I suppose what i'm trying to say is, if they are trying to waste your time and scam you, if you do have the time on your hands, just waste there time, therefore less people get these outrageous calls!
 

pepepepe

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Jan 3, 2013
1
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10,510
I just had one of these calls (about my third I think). Previously I've just said "this is a scam isn't it?" and hung up but today I decided to have a bit of fun and waste their time. I let them go through their pitch (on speaker phone for my wife's entertainment) for about five minutes, Googling everything (which was how I found this thread). Finally before actually doing anything they asked me to do I told them I'd like to continue later so could I please have their company name and phone number. When she hesitated I got fed up and said "look, I knew from the start this was a scam so I've just been wasting your time". She hung up!

Previously I've even heard of friends asking "is this that scam" and being told "yes", but that probably doesn't frustrate them as much.
 

edspd

Distinguished
Oct 7, 2009
3
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18,510
Just had the phone call and like pepepepe tried to keep them talking while googling to this thread. Was a bit taken back with the amount of information the caller had - he knew my IP address, my phone number (obviously!), my name and address. How had they got this? - is all that information in the public domain or has something been hacked? What comes first - can the phone number lead to name and address (my number's not ex-directory)? But then how do they get IP address? For a moment I almost believed it might have been genuine but then sanity returned and I hung up.
 
he knew my IP address, my phone number (obviously!), my name and address. How had they got this? - is all that information in the public domain or has something been hacked?

I'm afraid to say we all sleep-walked into this culture in which everything is known about us and no information can remain private for long. The genie has been out of the bottle for far too long now to squeeze it back in. The big surprise to me is the way people compound it by publicising their entire lives on social networking sites.
 

MadDogJack

Honorable
Mar 22, 2013
1
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10,510
I kept one of these clowns on the phone for an hour and a half by requesting that he repeat everything a dozen times. His English and the the phone connection were awful. I was actually doing nothing other than typing other than typing an occasional URL into Google search or a WhoIs search. He kept trying to instruct me to use the event viewer. After a while of "it's not working." I told him I was using my Apple computer, and asked if the problem was with my Windows computer? So then more time with event viewer. He tried to get me to activate a remote desktop through several sites - they just wouldn't connect as he expected. At least I kept him on the phone and away from other prey.
 

Jeanne Solnordal

Honorable
Mar 26, 2013
2
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10,510
I had a very bad experience with these guys today. I went along thinking they were good guys then realized Microsoft doesn't make phone calls to help anyone so I then asked for verification of employment and then the fun began. He got mad. Words were exchanged and he threatened to kidnap and rape my family. The police were called. He called 12 times each time with threats of kidnapping and rape of my children and me. The police answered one of those times and he even threatened him. When the police asked him why he was doing this he said it as fun... I have had to block my phone, spend time with the police, etc... He said he was going to crash my computer but I see it is working fine. Crazy people....I think he watches to many movies. So if anyone calls from Microsoft offering to help because your computer is sendng error messages to them, which they all do, hang up! Better yet block restricted numbers from your phones.
 

Maiden_Ty_One

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Apr 13, 2013
1
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10,510
I just had one of these! Some guy with an Indian accent phones me up, "I am calling from Microsoft Tech..." etc etc, I know about scams, I don't need to be told this is one. But I decide to have a bit of fun! :)

The conversation went something like this;

Him: "Do you see the Windows button on your Windows PC?".
Me: "Yes."
Him: "Click on it and the R button at the same time. What do you see?"
Me: "The run box."
Him: "Very good, sir. Now enter EVENTVWR and click OK."
I told him I did, but didn't bother - I know what the event viewer is.
Him "What do you see?"
Me: "Error messages."
Him: "How many?"
Me: "Ten thousand."
Him: "That is because of the virus in your system. Now I'm going to tell you how to download our software so I can help you clean your computer so it will work 10 times faster! Go Microsoft Internet Explorer."
Me: "Ok."
Him: "You have opened Microsoft Internet Explorer?"
Me: "Yes."
Him: "Very good sir. Now go to www.*********.com. What do you see?"

I was curious so went to the website - as I suspected, one of those remoted desktop viewers that allow genuine tech support people to use your computer remotely over the internet. I describe the website, tell him I clicked to download and opened the software.

Him: "Now what do you see?"
Me: "An IP address."
Him: "Very good sir," - I could hear him getting excited at this point, presumably not many people get this far before hanging up "Now tell me your IP address so I can connect to your Windows computer to fix it for you."

I make up an IP address.

Him: "...No sir, this is not correct, give it to me again?"

I give him the same IP but change one number.

Him: "...No sir, this is not the correct IP adress..."

All of this has taken about 20 minutes. After several more minutes of me arguing with him that it must be the right address, I ask him to go back and go through the whole thing from the beginning.

Him: - I can hear him getting pissed off now - "Click on the Windows button on your keyboard...!"
Me: "What Windows button?"
Him: "The Windows button!" - getting really mad now!
Me: "I don't see a Windows button."
Him: "You don't see a Windows button?!"

Me: "No, I own a Mac." :D

After several seconds of silence, he says; "Your computer is a Mac...?"
I say: "Yep!"
He says: "But you told me you saw a Microsoft Windows button on your keyboard..."
Me: - smugly - "Yeah, I did didn't I..." :)
He said "You've just been wasting my time..."

I told him that HE had been wasting MY time trying to con money out of me like all the others he phones up, called him a thieving b*****d, then he hung up! :)

 
Glad you had your fun Maiden_Ty_One but posting the actually web address on here wasn't such a good idea. I've masked it now but please don't post it or anything similar again - some people can't resist a live link.
 
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